THE BROKEN RESULT

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANGELA SCHLABITZ
WEBSITE: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Broken-Result/47549825503?ref=ts
COUNTRY: South Africa STYLE: Metal

YOU POSTED THE SONG “MENDING THE DEAD ARMY” ON YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE MONTHS AGO, EVERYBODY WOULD PROBABLY LIKE TO KNOW WHEN WE CAN EXPECT AN ALBUM OR EP FROM YOU GUYS?

BRAD: At the moment we’re just finishing up the guitars on a few songs and then its just vocals. So we should be looking at a date around September.

LOUIS: The first “Mending the Dead Army” we posted was from a previous recording that was going to be our album sound. As the album is being recorded at my studio “Burning Tone Studios”, all the recording files reside on my pc, which harddrive crashed at one point. This led to us having to start over which I think was a good thing as the new sound came out alot better.

It also gave us more time to decide which songs we actually want on this cd, and up to this point we’ve eliminated 26 that was written over the last 2-3 years. This is because we’ve developed and grown into our own style over time.

I DON’T KNOW WHO IS GOING TO ANSWER THIS SO THIS WILL PROBABLY BE IN THE THIRD PERSON BUT HAVING LOUIS HENN IN THE BAND WHO IS RUNNING BURNING TONE STUDIOS WITH ALOT OF RECORDING EXPERIENCE PROBABLY HAS HELPED WITH FINDING YOUR SOUND?

BRAD: It definitely has been an advantage for us, in that he knows exactly what we want and what we’re striving for with regards to guitar tones and overall production quality and I have to admit that his high standards in the studio have resulted in us leaving the studio as better overall musicians than when we walked in. This applies to all bands, especially guitarists, who work with Burning Tone.

LOUIS: I’ve been recording since 1999. I’ve never studied sound engineering funny enough. It’s just been years and years of training my ears and messing and experimenting around with sound. Burning Tone Studios was started to try and find an equilibrium in our local scene (especially the metal scene) and the international scene as everyone seems to always WANT to buy overseas artist cuz they’re “better”.

Well, in my experience the only thing that’s better is production. We can’t listen to most local bands cuz their recordings sound like something out of an 80’s garage. Take all those bands and give them a proper recording and production, and already people’s opinions will change. I’m not nearly as good as I’d like to become, I’ve learned alot in the last 3 years and will continue to do so. I want to thank Dual Entertainment and all the bands that’ve had faith in Burning Tone Studios! Together we’ll build our empire. Betray the Emissary, Infanteria, Reverse the Sands, White Collar Kiss, 21st Century Tragedy, its an honor working with you guys.

WESLEY: It’s awesome. What more could you ask for?

THERE WERE ALSO A FEW LINE-UP CHANGES EARLY ON IF I’M RIGHT, WAS IT JUST A CASE OF FINDING “THE RIGHT PEOPLE FOR THE JOB”, AND IN YOUR OPINION IF MUSICIANS DON’T GET ALONG WELL ON A “FRIENDSHIP” LEVEL BUT THEY WRITE GREAT MUSIC TOGETHER SHOULD THEY STAY OR LEAVE A BAND?

LOUIS: Not at all, the first ever members in addition to me and brad was half of Betray the Emissary. Because of their already busy lifestyles, a side project was not possible. Dane stayed with us because of his undying passion for drums and an almost lifetime long friendship since the days of my first band My Shade. The whole friendship thing is entirely up to the band personally. I’ve heard of bands whose members don’t get along, but play together in a band because their personalities “meet” on a musical level. This also works. Me and Brad were the founders of TBR and responsible for all the material to this date. We had many discussions over Mxit over what and who we want in TBR.

So the long search (2 years) started. We were looking for personality above all else. Musical requirements and skill could be worked on once the right person was found. I guess one could say we were looking for mature musicians and not someone who just wants to join so they can say “I’m in a band bru”. ;-P It was vital to find musicians that would enjoy playing our style of music as this adds to the overall energy and presentation on stage. And that’s exactly what we got. We all love and enjoy what we do, on and off stage. TBR Jirre Jaaa!!!

HOW ARE YOU APPROACHING THIS PROJECT/BAND DIFFERENTLY THAN ALL THE OTHERS YOU’VE BEEN INVOLVED WITH?

BRAD: First and foremost, we see TBR as a creative outlet. In the past and with most young musicians, one tends to do it for the wrong reasons, fame, money etc. This time round we’re doing it purely for the love and enjoyment of playing music we all enjoy. We definitely have a “No Strings Attached” approach to it and it’s resulted in us wanting to work harder, rather than feeling as though we’re forced to.

LOUIS: I’ve had my past experiences with bands and their politics. After my last band, I was not keen to start another one because I thought it’ll all be problematic in the end. But I decided to give it another shot and approach it differently. But yes, I’ve to agree with Brad that it’s a creative outlet. We’re very laid back this time around. And thus far have had no politics apart from the occasional “F*ck You!” as we rip each other apart in a game of Call of Duty 4. For me personally it’s about enjoyment and not getting carried away with this whole “Seriousnessnessness” crap.

DANE: It’s the most care free approach that I have had in my musical endeavours so far. We have so much fun with the music. There’s no need for egos, just good music and great times!

THE BAND SEEMS TO BE HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY CLASSICAL MUSIC IN THE WAY YOU ARRANGE AND WRITE YOUR SONGS, HOW DID YOU DECIDE ON THAT APPROACH TO YOUR MUSIC?

BRAD: Louis and I both have an immense amount of love and respect for classical music, even though neither of us have any formal training and when we started writing together, we noticed how our classical backgrounds were creeping into our writing style more and more and basically we took it a step further, in that we started writing with specific structures and movements in mind.

LOUIS: It was something that came to me on a day waking up with an amazing morning glory dreaming about Beethoven wielding a 7 string guitar and rocking out. Haha. I have an immense classical history. I played piano when I was a little sh*t. But I grew up in a family that’s heavy into their classical music. And I never used to like it that much until I listened to it closer one day and realised how f*cking talented someone must be to write a song using trillion instruments doing different things and sounding BIG.

Now a metal band can never sound like an orchestra, apart from the Metallica attempt on S&M which was good. But we decided to draw influence from the actual style, not just add violins and strings to our already written tracks. Certain progressions, scales, arrangements, and movements throughout the music are the most we can do now as we experiment on this new ground. And as Brad said, we both love classical music which just surfaced one day.

I’VE READ MANY BAND BIO’S THAT SAY SOMETHING IN THE LINE OF WHAT YOURS DOES; THEY DO NOT RESTRICT THEMSELVES TO A SPECIFIC GENRE OF METAL”, BUT AS MOST PEOPLE GET USE TO “A BAND” SOUNDING A CERTAIN WAY AND THE BAND CHANGES IT’S “SOUND”; THINGS LIKE THAT ARE NOT ALWAYS MET WITH POSITIVE CRITICISM?

LOUIS: For sure, not a lot can be said about this topic. We just decided to mention it as were sick of all the different metal genres out there and how they get labelled. It’s almost as if the genre of metal is more important than the band and their music. I disagree with this because in the end, it’s Metal. I don’t understand the need or reason to subdivide an overall “sound”. They’re all distorted guitars, bass, drums and vocals singing or screaming about something.

Saying we’re Death Metal or Black Metal or Power Pop Metal would just limit us subconsciously to what the music should sound like, this is against our classical influence in which the songs flow where they must and even without the lyrics or vocals, the song is able to tell a story. Subdividing metal for me is like saying some whore is getting f*cked by different penises. All different. Purple, yellow, green, orange, blue, red, short, long, gargantuan penises. In the end, she’s still getting f*cked.

WESLEY: Fuck the sub genre bullshit, what is metal = It’s about not giving a fuck and doing what you want.

I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS STILL THE CASE BUT YOU LIST MICHAEL GILL AS CO LYRICIST ON YOUR MYSPACE. IS IT IMPORTANT IN ANY PART OF SONG WRITING TO SOMETIMES ALLOW SOMEONE ELSE TO HAVE A SAY AND INPUT ON A CERTAIN IDEA OR PIECE OF MATERIAL?

LOUIS: Michael (Hidden 6th) Gill is an amazing mind. An author in the making if not already. After a mighty drunk discussion about our song stories and discovering his unique word usage, we decided to take him onboard to help with the lyrical content. He can truly bring an idea to life using words. One thing needs to become clear is that there’s no one that has a say or input. We are “the say”; we are “the input”. TBR is a bunch of gears that work together to produce an overall idea/theme/song.

WHEN WRITING LYRICS WHAT SUBJECTS OR STATE OF MIND DO YOU FIND USUALLY HELP TO BRING THAT EXTRA INTENSITY AND EMOTION TO YOUR SONGS?

LOUIS: Lyrics can be written about anything which is the case for this first album’s lyrical content. We’re tapping into various topics and ideas. The next album’s ideas are already surfacing and once again were growing into something more original than politics, hate, failed relationships, bad parents etc. that still seems to be doing the trick for most bands today. I suppose one could say were going into a more storytelling concept.

NOW THAT THE BAND IS PASSED ITS FIRST PERFORMANCE, HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE BROKEN RESULT LIVE WITH THE PREVIOUS BANDS THAT YOU HAVE PERFORMED WITH OVER THE YEARS?

BRAD: I mostly played with Hard Rock bands in PE and I’d have to say, playing with TBR is way more intense live and a whole lot more fun. The general atmosphere is enthralling and invigorating and when getting off stage with TBR, I can’t wait for the next time we get back onto a stage together.

LOUIS: It’s definitely more fun. We’ve played 3 shows thus far and it left us wanting more. It’s just so worth the long wait. For the first time I know, everyone in the band is happy playing the material we have and like I mentioned before, this makes being on stage such a different experience. I know for me personally I crave the next show.

DANE: TBR is a perfect combination of all of our personalities being converted into music. Its music that we love and we are playing it with awesome musicians.

YOU HAVE DANE CANTERBURY WHO IS THE VOCALIST FOR THE BAND BETRAY THE EMISSARY PLAYING DRUMS FOR THE BAND. IS HE HAPPY WITH THE FACT THAT HE MIGHT HAVE TO DO DOUBLE DUTY AT SOME SHOWS PERFORMING WITH BOTH BANDS ON THE SAME NIGHT?

DANE: The first three shows have all been double duty. I think it’s just an assumption now. Hahaha!!! It’s ok but I can’t do it too often. It takes its toll. The first 2 shows that we played were a day apart and I did double duty both nights. I had to get used to the standard very quickly.

BRAD: Dane Vincent Canterbury is a born drummer and personally there was never any doubt that he could pull it off. All the shows we’ve played so far he has performed for both bands and even being sick couldn’t slow him down.

LOUIS: If there’s anyone that can pull this off, it would be Dane. The last show we played was Death Fest organised by Thorn Rose (Thanks Guys). Dane was sick but still managed to pull of his duties for both bands.

WESLEY: His a machine, he loves what he does and never has a problem with doing double duty, and when he gets up on that stage, whether he’s with us or Betray he always puts his heart and soul into it, this nigga always comes to the motherfucking party y’all.

ARE YOU GUYS HOPING TO PLAY OUTSIDE OF CAPE TOWN IN THE NEAR FUTURE?

LOUIS: We would like to play shows anywhere our wallets allow us. But yes, in the future definitely the rest of South-Africa.

DANE: We definitely want to hit Jozi soon but it’s all about the cash situation.

THE CONTROVERSY AROUND THE DEVIL DRIVER TOUR LAST YEAR SHOWED THAT THERE ARE STILL SOME PEOPLE WHO REALLY DON’T KNOW WHAT THE METAL CULTURE IS ALL ABOUT, DO YOU SEE THIS CHANGING ANY TIME SOON?

BRAD: Ignorance has been and will always be around and thus, Metal will always be shunned upon.

LOUIS: I agree with Brad. Although one would hope once the old traditional way of thinking and believing has died off, one could hope for a positive more mature world. It’s only a choice. Until that day, Metal will still exist and will never seize to exist. It’s a talent first and foremost, and deserves the same respect as someone playing an African bongo drum. One thing those people need to understand is that it’s because of them, that we will continue doing what we’re doing. One thing is certain and that is those people who would go to the “end of the world” (which is bulls*it anyway) to make life miserable for us, clearly does not embrace individuality.

WESLEY: I agree with Brad as well, ignorance is very bliss when it comes to Metal, but hey, It’s ok for hip hop artists to rap about killing Niggas, bitches and drugs and its ok for some pop stars to sell sexuality, I guess that’s ok, can someone please help me understand the contradiction.

DANE: As soon as people see that metal is just as violent and vulgar as the pop music being played today, Metal will be understood.

ANY LAST COMMENTS/ADVISE OR PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO THANK?

LOUIS: I’m not Dr. Phil, Opera Winfrey, Jerry Springer or any of those who think they can give advice. You have a mind and a heart. It contains all the advice you need. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read our first interview. You are legends in the making. Jirre Jaaa!!!

WESLEY: Thank you to everyone that has supported us. I like panda bears. Advice? If you can’t deal with it kill yourself, if you can then go and fucking get it.

DANE: Keep true to who you are as a person and you can achieve anything. Also, become fans of bands now to hopefully play with those musicians in the future. Hahahahaha, Louis!!!

BRAD: I’d like to thank photographers, Carla, Leigh and Angela who have been supporting us and helping us with their unique talents. Great Work Gals! The Dead Army, Mees, Wilfred, Malan and all the other Nam veterans. Brother Gav for being of such sound mind, always willing to whip out the Neuro Linguistic Patterns to get us on the straight and Narrow. All the nigga’s who’ve been supporting us thus far. Neil, for this interview and supporting the Metal scene. Louis, Wes “10-0” Robb, Arno, Dane and Gavin Clyde Marchbank... I’ll meet you all on the frontlines any day.